Introduction
Poetry is written in closed or
open form.

Closed form poetry is characterized by
patterns: verse, rhyme, meter and/or
syllable. The content fits into the form.

Open form poetry is characterized
by the lack of pattern. The content
creates the form.

Open Form Poetry
Content determines the form of the
poem.

Punctuation, line breaks, and white
spaces become very important in
open form poetry.

“Free verse”

Concrete poems

Shaped poems

Free Verse:
poetry that does not rhyme or
have a regular meter
Free Verse
Cavalry Crossing a Ford
A line in long array where they wind betwixt green islands,
They take a serpentine course, their arms flash in the sun -- hark to the musical
clank
Behold the silvery river, in it the splashing horses loitering stop to drink,
Behold the the brown-faced men, each group, each person a picture, the negligent
rest on the saddles.
Some emerge on the opposite bank, others are just entering the ford --while,
Scarlet and blue and snowy white,
The guidon flags flutter gayly in the wind.
Walt Whitman, 1865
Concrete Poems
I
<')))><ing.
Billy Eckles
Lee Gately
Roger McGough
LEO PEÑA
Shaped Poems
Create a picture or visual pattern

Content is more important than shape

Content follows general grammatical
rules

Shape complements content of poem

Easter Wings
by George Herbert
Lord, Who createdst man in wealth and store,
Though foolishly he lost the same,
Decaying more and more,
Till he became
Most poore:
With Thee
O let me rise,
As larks, harmoniously,
And sing this day Thy victories:
Then shall the fall further the flight in me.
My tender age in sorrow did beginne;
And still with sicknesses and shame
Thou didst so punish sinne,
That I became
Most thinne.
With Thee
Let me combine,
And feel this day Thy victorie;
For, if I imp my wing on Thine,
Affliction shall advance the flight in me.
Dusk
Above the
water hang the
loud
flies
Here
O so
gray
then
What
A pale signal will appear
When
Soon before its shadow fades
Where
Here in this pool of opened eye
In us
No Upon us As at the very edges
of where we take shape in the dark air
this object bares its image awakening
ripples of recognition that will
brush darkness up into light
even after this bird this hour both drift by atop the perfect sad instant now
already passing out of sight
toward yet-untroubled reflection
this image bears its object darkening
into memorial shades Scattered bits of
light
No of water Or something across
water
Breaking up No Being regathered
soon
Yet by then a swan will have
gone
Yes out of mind into what
vast
pale
hush
of a
place
past
sudden dark as
if a swan
sang
Swan and Shadow
John Hollander
Closed Form Poems
Recognizable patterns

Patterns
can be determined by:
Stanza
length
Metrical
Rhyme
pattern (ex: iambic pentameter)
scheme
Syllable
count
Rhyme Scheme
Pattern of end rhyme in lines of poetry

Proud of the spoil that thou hast got
Of simple hearts, thorough love’s shot;
By whom, unkind, thou has them won,
Think not he hath his bow forgot,
Although my lute and I have done.
a
a
b
a
b
Meter
Patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables
The basic unit of meter is a foot.
Most common feet in English poetry:

Iamb
/
/
/
Trochee
Anapest
Dactyl
/
//
Spondee
Pyrrhic

• The meter of a poem
emphasizes the musical
quality of the language.
“The time is out of joint. O cursed spite,
That ever I was born to set it right!”
Hamlet, I.v
Metrical Lines
One foot
Two feet
Three feet
Four feet
Five feet
Six feet
Seven feet
Eight feet

monometer
dimeter
trimeter
tetrameter
pentameter
hexameter
heptameter
octameter
SCANSION
•The action of marking off of verse in metric feet,
•the analysis and visual representation of a poem's metrical structure
or pattern.
•Scansion in English prosody (the science or study of poetic meters
and versification) employs a system of symbols to reveal:
•the mechanics of a poem-i.e., the predominant type of foot
(the smallest metrical unit of stressed and unstressed syllables);
•the number of feet per line;
•and the rhyme scheme.
The purpose of scansion is to enhance the reader's sensitivity to
the ways in which rhythmic elements in a poem convey meaning.
Deviations in a poem's metrical pattern are often significant to its
meaning.
Prosody
•the rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech.
•Is an aspect of sound.
•Involves the technical elements of a poem that affect the sound of
the poem: meter, rhyme scheme, punctuation, stanza type, etc.
•Prosody conveys the emotion behind the words
and creates meaning for the audience.
Example:
I want the red car.
I want the red car.
I want the red car.
Blank verse:
Unrhymed lines of iambic
pentameter
“O, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt,
Taw, and resolve itself into a dew!
Or that the Everlasting had not fix’d
His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter! O God, God,
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!”
Stanzas
stanza : poem :: paragraph : essay
A stanza is a group of lines forming the
basic recurring metrical unit in a poem.
2 line stanzas: couplets
3 line stanzas:
tercets
triplets: aaa bbb ccc ddd
terza rima: aba bcb cdc ded
4 line stanzas: quatrains
5 line stanzas: cinquains
6 line stanzas: sestets
7 line stanzas: septets
8 line stanzas: octaves

COUPLETS
The Red Wheelbarrow
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens
William Carlos Williams
Lyric
A short poem in which a single speaker
expresses personal thoughts and feelings

Most
poems other than dramatic and
narrative poems are lyrics.
In
ancient Greece, lyrics were meant to
be sung.

Word lyric comes from lyre, the name of a
musical instrument used to accompany
songs.
Renaissance Themes in
Lyric Poems

Courtly love (elegant in language and
manner; attempts to
gain attention and favor;
language courts or “woos”
the object of the poet’s
affections)
Unrequited love—love that is rejected
or ignored

The Sonnet
Italian origin: The word sonnet comes from Italian
sonetto, meaning "little sound" or "little song."
Lyric poems
14 lines
Iambic pentameter: U / U / U / U /
U/
Use of conceits: a metaphor that the poet usually
extends and elaborates throughout the course of the
poem. (More on this to follow.)
VOLTA
• Italian word for “turn.”
•
In a sonnet, the volta is the turn of
thought or argument.
•
In Petrarchan or Italian sonnets it occurs
between the octave and the sestet.
• In Shakespearean or English before the
• final couplet.
Poets chronicled stories of unrequited love in
sonnet sequences, which were several sonnets tied
together with the thread of narrative.
Development of the Sonnet
The first sonnets were written in Italy in the Thirteenth
Century. The most famous of the Italian sonneteers
were Dante and Petrarch who wrote entire sonnet
sequences in the Italian vernacular.
The Italian sonnet was introduced into English poetry
by Sir Thomas Wyatt.
In the late sixteenth century and early seventeenth century,
English writers began to imitate their earlier Italian counterparts
by writing sonnets in the English vernacular.
The most important sonnet sequences written in English were
written by Edmund Spenser (Amoretti , published in 1595),
Sir Philip Sidney (Astrophel and Stella, published in 1582),
and William Shakespeare (his untitled sequence of
154 sonnets was published in 1609).
By the reign of Queen Elizabeth, sonnet production became
the vogue for its aspiring writers
ITALIAN
or
PETRARCHAN
SONNETS
Francesco
Petrarca
1304-1374
Francesco Petrarca
Famous for his poems addressed to Laura, an
idealized beloved whom he met in 1327 and
who died in 1348.
Italian scholar, poet, and humanist, a major
force in the development of the Renaissance,
Petrarch was regarded as the greatest scholar of
his age. He wrote the majority of his works in
Latin, although his sonnets and canzoni written
in Italian were equally influential.
Canzoniere: Petrarch’s Sonnets
Canzoniere (song book) a collection of 366 lyrics
(including sonnets and other types of poems),
totaling the number of days in the yearly cycle,
was inspired by the lady whom Petrarch names
Laura.
However, his love was not returned; her presence
causes him unspeakable joy, and on the other hand
it creates unendurable desires.
There is no definite information concerning Laura,
except that she is lovely to look at, with golden
hair, and her bearing is modest and dignified.
Upon her death, the poet finds that his grief is as
difficult to live with as was his former despair.
The persona is a "humble servant" tossed by a
tempest on the sea of despair.
The beloved can wound with a glance.
Her beauty is described in stereotypical fashion:
her eyes sparkle, her complexion is ivory, her lips
are ruby red, her hair is blonde, and her bearing is
angelic.
Sonnet 90
She used to let her golden hair fly free
For the wind to toy and tangle and molest;
Her eyes were brighter than the radiant west.
(Seldom they shine so now.) I used to see
Pity look out of those deep eyes on me.
("It was false pity," you would now protest.)
I had love's tinder heaped within my breast:
What wonder that the flame burned furiously?
She did not walk in any mortal way,
But with angelic progress; when she spoke,
Unearthly voices sang in unison.
She seemed divine among the dreary folk
Of earth. You say she is not so today?
Well, though the bow's unbent, the wound bleeds on.
Translated by Maurice Bishop
Sonnet 181
Love made a snare, a beautiful device
woven of gold and pearls, and this he laid
twined in the grass, under the sorrowful shade
of the laurel tree to which I sacrifice.
Sweetmeats were strown therein, of greatest price,
though bitter at the core. I took them unafraid.
Ever unearthly-lovely music played,
Unheard since Adam's hour in Paradise.
The radiance of her eyes outdid the sun,
transfiguring the earth in a holy blaze.
Then with her ivory hand she twitched the rope!
And so I fell in the net, and was undone
by her angelic words, her darling ways;
also by pleasure, by desire; by hope.
Translated by Maurice Bishop
SONNETS
Italian or Petrarchan FORM
Stanzas:
Octave – 8 lines; presents problem
followed by
Sestet – 6 lines; resolution or meditation upon problem
Rhyme:
Octave -- abbaabba
Sestet -- cdecde or cdccdc or cddcdd or variation
Petrarchan Conceits
A conceit is a fanciful notion, generally expressed
through an elaborate analogy or metaphor.
From Petrarch, the sonneteers of the Renaissance
took not only a conventional form but also
conventional sentiments. The relation between the
poet and his beloved is presented in terms of an
idealized courtly love:
Example:
There is a Garden in her face,
Where Roses and white Lillies grow;
Wherein all pleasant fruits do flow.
There Cherries grow, which none may buy
Till Cherry ripe themselves do cry.
Edmund Spenser (1552-1599)
 Spenserian sonnet: abab bcbc cdcd ee
Amoretti: “little loves” or “little cupids”
Sonnet sequence celebrating the poet’s
courtship and marriage to Elizabeth Boyle
 Portrays a happy and successful love
William
Shakespeare
(1564-1616)
 154 sonnets
 Addressed to a young nobleman (perhaps a patron)
and a dark, sensuous, promiscuous mistress (the
Dark Lady)
 Nothing is really known about “the story” of the
sequence.
 Wide variety of emotions expressed: love, grief,
despair, melancholy, delight, shame, fear, etc.
English or Shakespearean
Stanzas:
3 Quatrains – 4 line stanzas
present similar images
followed by
Heroic Couplet – rhymed pair of iambic pentameter lines.
Presents pardoxical resolution.
Rhyme:
3 Quatrains -abab
cdcd
efef
1 Couplet --gg
XVIII
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.